Syria ‘plans to turn chemical weapons on civilians’

Rebels help a comrade wounded by shelling near a hospital in AleppoMarco Longari/AFP/Getty Images

The Syrian regime has plans to use chemical weapons against its own people, the former head of the country’s chemical arsenal has disclosed to The Times.

Major-General Adnan Sillu, who defected three months ago, said yesterday that he had been party to top-level discussions about the deployment of chemical weapons against rebel fighters and civilians in Syria’s second largest city.

“We were in a serious discussion about the use of chemical weapons, including how we would use them and in what areas. We discussed this as a last resort — such as if the regime lost control of an important area such as Aleppo,” General Sillu said in his first interview since his defection.

The meeting, held at Syria’s chemical weapons centre five miles south…